Pasadena Water and Power Expands Clean Energy Use with Power from Sapphire Solar Project

Pasadena Water and Power (PWP) will be getting up to 39 megawatts of electricity from the Sapphire Solar project in Riverside County starting in December 2026, in accordance with a  20-year contract with the Southern California Public Power Authority. 

PWP is one of three community-owned utilities that are part of the contract with the SCPPA. The others are Anaheim and Vernon.

Under the contract, the SCPPA will purchase 117 megawatts of solar energy from EDF Renewables North America, a private company that develops, builds and operates renewable power plants. EDF is building the Sapphire Energy Project which is expected to be online in late 2026. 

One third of the capacity generated by the project will be received by Pasadena, PWP said in a statement. 

“PWP takes pride in providing safe, reliable, environmentally responsible water and power service at competitive rates,” Sidney Jackson, PWP General Manager, said. “This solar agreement is another important step in continuing to expand PWP’s clean power portfolio and is one of many long-term arrangements currently in development to help achieve our sustainability goals.” 

The Sapphire Solar Project is expected to generate 375,800 megawatt-hours of clean energy annually, enough to meet the consumption of over 58,000 average California homes. 

According to Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies calculations by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, this is equivalent to avoiding over 266,000 metric tons of carbon emissions annually, which represents the greenhouse gas emissions from over 57,000 passenger vehicles driven over the course of one year.

PWP delivers electricity to more than 65,000 customers within Pasadena and water to almost 38,000 households and businesses in Pasadena and adjacent communities in the San Gabriel Valley. 

PWP is a not-for-profit public service owned and operated by the City of Pasadena.

For more information, visit https://pwp.cityofpasadena.net.